


Death Conquered

by aneighthdomain



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Ben Solo Lives, F/M, Fix-It, the kiss was romantic dammit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-13
Updated: 2020-06-13
Packaged: 2021-03-04 02:28:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,701
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24696034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aneighthdomain/pseuds/aneighthdomain
Summary: After Ben gives the last of his life force to Rey, she pulls him back from the brink.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 3
Kudos: 60





	Death Conquered

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this the night that the TRoS novelization was release because the first thing I did was go and read the kiss scene and I was very disappointed and hurt with what had been published and wrote this to help myself get through it all. This was once part of my drabble post but it's too long to be a real drabble and I decided it deserved it's own post. Please enjoy~!
> 
> P.S. This is very heavily influenced by the novel. I basically read that whole scene once and then wrote what I remembered in my own way, so if it sounds a bit familiar, that's why.

The outcropping that had saved him from death had not been forgiving. It had been hard, and rough, and jagged and it had only stopped his fall, not prevented his injuries. And they were...various. But as he reached out for Rey he felt nothing. The shining light that should have been her was...gone.

Ben opened his eyes. “Rey,” he whispered.

Somewhere, he found the strength to move. Through will as strong as anything he’d ever mustered, he got to his feet. Wincing, he almost went down again when he tried to put weight on his foot, but he caught himself with a hand on the stone of the cliff. Looking up to see how far he’d fallen, he gingerly put the foot down and slowly put weight on it. It hurt, but the more he worked it, the less debilitating it became. Once he knew it would hold his weight, he began the climb.

So many times he would slip, either because his ankle would give out, or because he would take too large a breath and the expanding of his lungs would press on a rib that he hoped had only been bruised, or crack at the most. He wouldn’t be any good to Rey if he punctured a lung. By the time he reached the top he was in agony. The pain took his breath away. As he managed to pull himself up back onto the ground, he searched for any sign of Rey. And there she was, lying on the cold stone.

The fear he’d managed to keep at bay swamped him like a tide. Galvanized, he grunted as he pulled himself up the rest of the way. Ben stumbled and shuffled and bore through the pain to get to her toneless form. His ankle gave out again and Ben dropped, falling face first into the ground. He gasped as every pain sharpened briefly and he wasn’t sure how he was going to get up this time.

_ Rey... _

Ben grit his teeth and his breath hissed through them as he got himself up, putting all of his weight on his good foot--as good as that was. There was no working the injured ankle anymore. It was beyond use. It was only good for moving his momentum forward in a half hop, half dash until,  _ finally _ , he reached her.

He went down again, but then he didn’t need to go very far. He got his legs out from under him, pain forgotten in the fear as he was struck again by the fact he couldn’t feel her presence in the Force. He couldn’t feel anything from her. With as much finesse as a toddler hauling a favorite pet around, Ben clutched at what he could and dragged her body into his lap because he knew, even before he laid her back and saw her blank, staring eyes that he was holding a body, not Rey.

Ben choked on a sob as he heaved her into his arms and against his chest. There was no tone to her limbs, her body dragging him down. He rested his chin on her shoulder, staring out at nothing in the dilapidated stadium.

_ You did this. This is your fault. You weren’t there. You left her... _

The thoughts stabbed at him, tearing at his insides and ripping them from his gut. But, they were Snoke’s words or rather Palpatine’s words, not hers. Rey would never say anything so vile to him. She was good, and beautiful, and kind and she would never hurt him like that. Ben closed his eyes and shoved the thoughts out of his mind, holding her to him, reaching out for her, for anything that could still be her. And then...

...There!

A spark. A tiny light that the Force hadn’t yet taken. Ben drew back from her and looked down into those dull, lifeless eyes. He knew what he needed to do. She’d shown him what to do already. He could still feel part of her lifeforce in him. Now he could give it back. Ben rested his hand on her abdomen, his hand taking up almost all of its width. Had she always been this small? Had he ever noticed?

Closing his eyes again, Ben took a deep breath and settled his mind. Slowly, only a small trickle at first, he pushed his lifeforce through his hand, pushed it through to her. Soon, the trickle turned into a stream, which in turn, became a rush. Faster and faster, he poured everything in him into her. When he’d run through the extent he’d ever used, he found reserves, the reservoirs that kept his body alive. It didn’t matter, he pulled ruthlessly at them as well and kept pouring what he had into her.

Just as he was reaching the end, fear dogging his actions, he felt it. The expansion of her diaphragm. In the next instant, her hand covered his and he startled out of his trance. He evaluated himself even as he evaluated her. He had so little left. He could feel the pull of the Force on him. She was alive now. He could go, right?

“Ben!” she gasped, sitting up to look into his eyes, look into him.

He had enough to feel her against him, to feel the life return to her, to feel her hand on his face. The tears threatened again, and he could feel the corner of his lips twitching, wanting to smile. He was so close, the Force waiting to enfold him when he was ready, but he needed to see the life in her eyes a little longer to drown out the look of lifelessness that had been there a moment before.

Her fingers lightly trailed down his cheek until she reached for him. Her lips touching his was a surprise and he wrapped his arms around her as his heart slammed into hyperdrive. Oh the feel of her mouth on his. He drew her as close to him as he could and the hard press of her lips on his filled him with...with love. He loved her. And that was...altering. Shattering. Devastating.

As she drew her lips away from his, eyes opening to meet his, the little bit of his breath exhaled out of him in a tiny laugh of pure joy. And then...the last tiny trickle of lifeforce dryed up and his body went tonless and he fell back out of her arms, his last thought of her hand holding his.

*******

Ben’s body started to fall away from her and Rey clutched at him with all her strength, dragging him back into her arms. “No,” she growled, splaying her hand against his back, over where his heart was. She closed her eyes and sent her awareness into him, through the bond they shared in the Force. She shifted and thrust herself into what was left of the shell he was leaving behind in her arms and she searched, desperate to find something,  _ anything _ that was  _ Ben _ .

There...a final trickle ebbing away. Even as Rey grasped his hand, the hand he’s reached out to her before, she snatched up that tiny thread. It fought her, trying to slip away, but she reached out with her other senses and pulled at the Force. Not the lifeforced that lived in her, but the Force that fed into her. She pulled at it, yanking it toward the tiny trickle in her other mental hand. The Force fought her. It was his time, it told her. It was time for him to join with the Force, to become part of it as the cycle dictated.

Rey shook her head. She refused. This was  _ not _ going to be their fate. She was not losing him. She’d only just found him, the real him. Ben. She’d just  _ found _ Ben and she was not going to let him go. Not him. Never him. Because...she loved him. Not Kylo Ren. She’d never cared for that monster, but Ben, the man that had always lingered in the corner of his mind, she loved that man. The man that followed her to Exegol and fought off his former comrades to come to her aid. That was the man she loved. And she would. Not. Let. Him. Go.

With all of her strength, all the strength Ben had given her, she heaved and hauled and fought and  _ conquered _ this small part of the Force. It became hers, became beholden to her will, to do with what she wanted. And she wanted to save Ben. With the same fervor with which she had sent Palpatine’s power back on him, Rey slammed the raw energy of the Force into that final, tiny trickle that was Ben.

At first there was nothing, and Rey choked back a sob, thinking she wasn’t fast enough, or that she’d lost that tiny part of him before she had been able to connect the Force to it. But then he sucked in air like he’d never had it in all of his life. He gasped and gasped, trying to fill his lungs. The hand she’d held tightened around hers, not very much, but enough to reassure her that this was real. She’d done it.

Ben’s breathing eventually leveled out and he was able to pull away and held himself up. She turned her head at the soonest opportunity to see his face. He turned astonished eyes on her. His whole body trembled, but his eyes were clear and full of life.

“Ben,” she said again.

He choked on a laugh for a moment, but then it came out shaky and almost hysterical. “Rey.”

Without giving him a chance to say anything else, because now that their bond was opened again, she was filled with the knowledge that he loved her, even as the knowledge that she loved him filled him, Rey tilted her head and kissed him again. It was soft this time, gentle, no longer desperate. Because Ben was fine. And she was fine. And they were going to go through life together now, as they were meant to be, two halves of a whole. 

Hand in hand.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you so much for reading~! And remember, feed and water your fic authors. Kudos are lovely, comments are a delight, and MOAR is always inspiring~!


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